For a novice to learn to play golf well they need to concentrate initially not only generally on their posture/stance and swing but also very importantly on how they grip the handle of the golf club. Indeed, incorrect grip will greatly affect the swing and subsequent strike and trajectory of the golf ball and correct grip is critical to good technique. This fact has not escaped the attentions of the golf equipment industry and a number of proposals have been made for golf grip training aids to address this, with patents having been applied for on this over the years. These are often systems that have markings/visual indicia, commonly both on the golf club handle grip and a glove, the glove having corresponding markings to co-ordinate with the markers on the grip. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,874, U.S. Pat. No. 6,272,686, WO2000/0020078 and WO2007/120058. These generally teach the trainee golfer to grip the golf club handle in one or two recognised manners for optimum performance. The trainee continues to use them until he or she has built up the necessary muscle memory and no longer needs the training aid. However these have a problem in that they rely entirely on the line of sight of the trainee which can be off angle and the markings may not be sufficiently visible to the player for good accurate alignment as the hand proceeds to wrap around the handle to grip it.
In more sophisticated systems there are specially formed handle grips that are moulded to provide contours for the fingers and thumbs to follow to guide them to achieve the correct grip position. These are not normally coordinated with gloves. Examples include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,484,762, 2,628,100 and 5,299,802. Such systems can be costly to produce and can still be somewhat tricky to use.
As an aside, in un-related developments some manufacturers in the golf equipment industry have proposed systems for helping golfers maintain their grip position (once they are already familiar with the correct grip position) as a counter-measure against twist or slippage in wet conditions or if the player has a weak grip. These partly resemble the grip training aids but are not designed as training aids and don't guide the user reliably to the correct grip position. Example patents on such devices include GB1,013,381, GB2,313,320, U.S. Pat. No. 3,532,344, U.S. Pat. No. 3,508,280, US2002/147054, US2007/0184911, WO01/23046, WO 2004/105898, WO2005002689 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,539 which all have a glove and a handle grip (or handle grip cover) where each of the glove and grip (or handle grip cover) are arranged to co-operatively engage with each other, commonly through bands of hook and loop fasteners (VELCRO®) or, in the latter case, magnets. In US2004/132538 the device is arranged as a training aid for positional guidance, but there is no precise and reliable tactile verification of correct positioning. It has visual guidance and the contact of the opposing zones is augmented by VELCRO bonding but there is no control over orientation of positioning or extent of overlap of the opposing VELCRO tabs and the user can easily adopt an incorrect grip even though there is an engagement of VELCRO tabs.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the problems of the existing golf grip training/grip aligning aids so that an effective aid may be provided that most golfers can get affordable access to and be able to use reliably to acquire the right grip technique for success and yet be able to use the aid not just as a training aid but even in competitive golfing matches where permitted.